Card #18 – ”Consult A Past Guide”

Card #18 – ”Consult A Past Guide” from the Creative Whack Pack

Available on the iOS App Store and as a physical deck of cards

Polaris is our North Star, the one around which all other stars appear to rotate.

But Polaris’ role as the night sky’s center isn’t fixed. As the earth rotates on its axis, it also wobbles like a spinning top.

Over a 26,000-year cycle, the earth’s axis draws a ring through the northern sky, and any star along that ring gets a turn as the North Star.

From 4000 BC until 1800 BC, Thuban, a star in the constellation Draco, was the guiding light the ancients used to find true north.

The Egyptians used Thuban to align the Great Pyramid of Giza. Neolithic British tribes used it to lay out Stonehenge. And early Babylonian astronomers used records from a Thuban-centered night sky to create their highly accurate calendar.

But nothing lasts forever. Due to the earth’s wobble cycle, Thuban has drifted away from true north and will move nearly 47° away from it by the year AD 10,000. But here’s the fascinating part: Thuban will start working its way north, and by AD 20,300, it will once again be the earth’s North Star.

Thuban’s movement from central importance to obscurity and back is a useful metaphor that can be applied to our lives.

— What long-ago “guiding star” in your life (idea, belief, strategy) might be useful to you once again?

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